The Genetic Imperative

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  "Get moving! Keep order. It's up to you," she thought to the young soldier.

  The senior engineer locked in the coordinates quickly and Nina waited for her to pass. She brought up the rear and made sure the platoon spaced itself correctly for an emergency burn. The ground was coming at them quickly, and the kinetic fluid grew thick. They had to get to the rear of the tube before the mass turned solid. They just made it.

  The rumbling became incredible thunder followed by a sharp, sudden silence as the fluid locked them in place for a moment, isolating them from vibration. A screaming crack sounded as the pod shattered against its shock wave. The fluid loosened its grip as it dissipated the violent force of impact. A brilliant flash of white light accompanied the disintegration of the inner shell. Pod splinters flamed orange as they pinwheeled away.

  Warriors locked arms and legs as the kinetic fluid foamed. Nina found herself in a large cluster of bodies encased in a long ribbon of fluid. The drop pod broke far too early. Their altitude was almost fatally high. The ribbon stretched, and fear slowed time. The ribbon broke apart into rippling bubbles of fluid holding tight clusters of grasping warriors. They fell fast.

  I am alive, Nina thought. She would remember thinking how lucky she was before the ground caught her by surprise and her group broke away. Nina bounced, then skipped across the surface. She huddled in the air and concentrated on focusing the full power of her energy sheath into the robe that was now her armor. Only a thin membrane of fluid surrounded her. Separated from the pod, the substance around her rapidly lost its ability and became like just another drop of blood spattering on a slaughterhouse floor.

  Her shoulder slammed into an outcropping of rock that gave way with a dull thud, and that sent her spinning. She saw stones fly away twirling slowly in the thick atmosphere. They disappeared into the dark clouds an arm's length distant. Far from Nina, other warriors skipped across the surface, some alone, some grasping desperately to each other, coated in the last drop of safety they might ever have.

  Nina came to a sudden violent rest against a solid wall of rock that refused yield. Her breathing oil cylinders jammed painfully into her spine before she tumbled down the bank of a shallow fissure. Her robe was in full armor mode now and completely saturated with energy. The cylinders could take a lot, but that impact was enough to break them.

  When she finally stopped tumbling, Nina was relieved to find her first breath from the breather full and potent. For the moment, the system seemed fine. Her armor was still high. She was invigorated by fear and the will to survive. Nina reached back with both hands and found both staff sections still in place. As long as she could breathe and had her weapon, she had hope.

  The fresh, oxygen-bearing mineral oil brought new clarity. She could move, and she did so quickly. The atmosphere pressed relentlessly against her energy sheath. Nina struggled to her feet. She began to climb. Bruised and battered muscles strained as she clawed her way up. Her toes curled the tips of her thin sandals around the jagged rock in their struggle for purchase on the crumbling fissure wall. Nina concentrated hard as she climbed and found a potent network signal nearby. Someone was near. Her communications crystal was still secure in its sleeve in the small of her back.

  Light from the constant discharge of static electricity allowed her to see color in the rock. Beyond that, the sun of this system could do nothing more than make vague, red shadows. As she reached up and out of the fissure, it seemed that those bloody shadows began to reach back. For a brief moment, she took note of the iridescent blue that dappled the stone around her. Nina found it beautiful. She slowed her scramble for a moment to take it in, then snapped back to focus. Distraction was a sign of shock, and Nina needed to survive. She purged all other thoughts but survival.

  The comm signal came from her right and seemed to be at the same elevation. That was good. Nina hurled herself over the edge of the fissure, jumped to her feet and ran to the signal. The crushing atmosphere taxed her. It took great concentration to push enough energy into her armor to displace the mass. Fighting here would be hard, she thought.

  They were three. She came upon them suddenly. Two were down, and the third worked on the one still moving. Nina met the shocked eyes of a young private lying flat on the ground, barely breathing. The atmosphere had the young warrior pressed against the planet floor. It was obvious the young one was terrified.

  Nina reached down with both arms and gathered the warrior up by the blouse section of her robe. The spinstone thread gave way, almost like cloth again. This situation would not do. She lifted the private off her feet and sent out a wave of energy. It was more power than she could spare, but the young private needed the boost.

  The young one gave a great spasm and shook her head as if trying to wake from a nightmare. Nina thought she probably was having a nightmare. She placed the soldier solidly back on her feet and gave her shoulder a sharp slap. Nina showed a broad smile as she'd just told a great joke. The private didn't yield from her bracing blow, and that was a start, but her face still held fear.

  Nina grabbed the soldier's blouse section with one hand and drove her fist several times hard into the young warrior's chest until she felt the robe stiffen. Nina did all of this with the same discordant grin. The young one was solid again. Nina's smile broadened. Even in the half-light, the soldier could see the shine in her Captain's hazel eyes. Nina shook the warrior with her free hand and tapped her cheeks with firm slaps, both backhand, and front.

  "Come on. There you go," Nina thought urgently to the soldier over and again.

  A strange smile spread over the young soldier's face. She finally got the message; you are alive. You have a chance. Let's fight.

  "Excellent!" Nina thought to the private. "Are you here? We need you here. Are you with us?

  The soldier nodded her head.

  "Let's get to it then," Nina thought.

  She hoped more like this soldier survived. The other soldier stood with great interest, and then they all turned in unison to the fallen one. The other downed warrior was in poor condition. Her right arm lay at a jagged angle against her body, and her eyes were closed with lids fluttering. Her energy sheath was still high, but they could see flecks of blood around her breathing mask beneath the veil of energy. There was little to be done. Nina shook her head and gritted her teeth. If an impact was severe enough to break the bone of a Warrior through the energy sheath, the injuries inside were much worse.

  They had to leave her. Everyone understood. Nina considered telling the others they would come back for her if they could, but there was nothing to be served by the lie. This one was gone. Her best chance was to be picked up after the battle by the medical engineers, which was unlikely. Nina turned away from the fallen soldier fighting hard against her aching heart and second thoughts. The instinct to regroup propelled them. None of them looked back. Instead, their eyes held the field. It was still only a few standard minutes after impact, and the soldiers were still developing their battle sight.

  Their eyes forgot the dim red light and their minds adjusted to perceive heat and vibration. Vision broadened to include the sensation of skin and ear. The real shape of the land became apparent, rendered in shades of sharp blue-gray with striations of red to orange fading to yellow. A distorted plateau stretched before them as far as they could see. The red lines shifting to yellow seemed to tattoo the land and the compressed gas around them, representing waves of heat, vibration, and currents that would have been the wind on any other planet.

  The plateau spreading out to the horizon was a chaotic display of conflicting shape. The ancient pox of impact craters, sculpted smooth by countless millennia, gave the land a deceptively gentle quality. The sea of rolling, polished rock swells obscured the edges of jagged fissures between them that spanned anywhere from several arm-lengths to several hundred meters. Depth was impossible to determine until a body was either on the edge or over it. Here and there, impossibly sharpened rock outcroppings rose up like Roman swords. In oth
er places, stone lay across the landscape like the shattered and fallen columns of ancient cities. Amid the bleak forms, they began to recognize the glowing, smoldering remains of other drop pods.

  Nina directed them to the closest impact point, and they started running. Attracted by their thought transmissions, more soldiers fell in with them along the way. A proper local comm node formed and Nina called for a report. She had two sergeants from her original platoon, but that was it. She lost most of her warriors and didn't expect to find many more alive. Whoever survived would be spread across distances too great to make putting together the original platoon worthwhile. They would have to regroup on their own. The entire battle plan was shot to pieces. They were improvising now.

  She spotted a low, ancient lava dome on the plain. The rise provided a certain landmark, and Nina broadcast the coordinates as far as she could. Soon after the transmission, Nina saw other forms emerging from the mist of nitrogen and sulfuric acid that curtained the land around them. By the time she reached the little rise, she had located more than fifty members of her platoon. Before long, eight hundred other warriors streamed out of the acid mists and crowded onto the warty black mound. They began to spread around its base like iron filings drawn to a magnet. Nina found two other captains and they formed a huddle and a single comm node.

  "Status," came a voice in their collective mind. Nina found the source to her right. The senior captain gave a curt nod, and the other captain spoke.

  "I have ninety-eight in my group out of two full platoons. Comm section, one engineer. No sergeants," the second Captain said before Nina could respond.

  "I have One fifty out of several different platoons. They are mixed ranks with one Lieutenant. I have a Full engineering section and a few heavy weapons," the ranking Captain said.

  Nina listened to her fellow Captains as she took reports from her provisional squad.

  "One twenty-five, mostly low ranks and green troops. Four sergeants, two of them comm, the others are mostly light infantry. I have a good number of heavies, but they lost most of their weapons," Nina reported.

  They both deferred to the senior warrior, a first Captain. She sketched out a dire situation.

  "As far as I can tell, we lost both Colonels from our sortie. We are the highest ranking officers in this quad of the drop zone. The pods lost navigation early, so there may be other drop zones we don't know about. There is no main force. We are scattered. Time for some field promotions,” the senior Captain said, her elven face splitting into a crooked smirk.

  The senior Captain paused to let her colleagues adjust. "We are all turned around down here. Your orders are to pool all the comm sections. We need to find or make the forward line and regroup behind it. Our priority right now is to work on communications and reconnaissance. Who has the strongest light infantry?"

  "I have at least ten that will do," Nina said immediately. The other two offered five each from their blended troops.

  "That's our scout then. Ranger, you command the scout,” the new leader said to Nina. Turning to the other, she ordered, “Give scout one comm unit and extra power. Scout is to run concentric circles around this position, report as you go. Find the spore before it finds us!”

  The captains studied each other each other for a moment. The smaller infantry Captain spoke up. “No supplies.”.

  The senior captain winced.

  "Well, what do we have?" the leader asked impatiently.

  Nina spoke up next, "Looks like I'm it. I have three extra power cells and two logic units."

  "No fabricators?" the senior officer asked with a hint of anxiety. They studied one another and shook their heads. That meant no shelter, no fortifications, and no extra weapons. They would have to improvise. The leader took a deep breath and shifted strategy quickly. Her effective leadership was comforting in the general mess this mission became.

  “Right. We figure this out as we go. It's still early yet. Hopefully, we find fabricators. My troop is now the central node. You," the lead Captain pointed to the infantry officer. “Build salvage teams on the fly. Same for battle units. Report through channels to me for the yes/no. Let me be clear here—comm is critical. My job is to build an army. Your job is to find me the material to build it. I need all the comm troops you can spare," and with the last comment, pointed to Nina.

  “Scout: instruct everyone you come across to send supplies rear. Until we find out otherwise, this hill is rear. Find out the disposition of our force. Put the word out—we need small salvage units to grab everything they can. Pull from everywhere including every body that’s not moving,"

  They all winced at the last order.

  "Nina, Generation Gaav, 5th iteration, by the way," Nina said. They were using signals to form nodes until that moment. Names and faces were not as important as signals and orders on the battlefield.

  "I'm Abal. Pleasure," the senior officer replied with a twinge of irony.

  "Ayesel," The other stated, her face pale beneath the shimmer of her energy sheath.

  "Nice planet," Nina said.

  "Pretty rocks," Abal added.

  "Lovely," Ayesel responded. Nina thought it was good to see blood coming back to Ayesel’s face, even though it was brought on by sarcasm.

  "Alright!" Abal broke the exchange with urgency. “Let's get moving! We don't want to huddle up here and make a pretty target."

  "After you," Nina said and motioned with a sweep of her arm in mock formality.

  The Warriors ran separate ways through the increasing crush of bodies gathering atop the lava dome. Nina called to her Comm Sergeant who quickly appeared alongside. Nina’s new troop quickly gathered as they ran out from the dome to a standard patrol distance. The run gave Nina time to think. Their situation was bleak and unprecedented. A normal operation would have them recovered by now and formed into their original platoons. In a regular time sequence, they would already have a read on the enemy, a defensive perimeter, and several patrols. All this would likely be achieved before the first trigger spore sent its signals back to the primary infection. But now they were just becoming organized. They were operating on their best guesses.

  The entire premise of drop-pod insertion was to be on the ground before the trigger spore had time to alert the primary infection and activate its primary cell defenses. Instead, their force was scattered over a wide area of the target site. Many parts of the disease might already be forming a response.

  Her Comm Sergeant was busy building information links. As the network grew, the voices in Nina's head became more chaotic and desperate. She found herself having to ignore more and more of those voices. As she ran, the twenty soldiers assigned to her fell into a sensible formation. She needed to do the same for communication. Nina was approaching the saturation point. Soon her response to the chaos would be random orders determined by haste. She just needed a few seconds of buffer to make the right decisions. Nina stopped running and pulled her comm officer aside. The scout troop paused for a moment, arranging itself protectively around their captain.

  "You! Sergeant! Police this local network."

  "Yes, Captain."

  "Alright. Sync with me."

  The two stood close together for a moment, eyes closed and concentrating. Nina’s forehead grew warm, and a familiar twinge of vertigo came over her. Nina’s thoughts merged with her Comm Sergeant. They had a priority link and would share nearly every thought.

  "All my orders go through you. Stay close to me. Stay alive. I need light infantry including one more comm unit to join the scouts. Pick one."

  The voices grew more numerous and chaotic.

  "Sergeant!" she thought, and reached out to seize the arm of her subordinate. "Keep up with me and keep these channels under control! Route some of these voices to command. We need order, and I need you to do it! Use your judgment."

  The number of voices decreased instantly. The sergeant answered questions and gave appropriate direction in return. They would find order soon enough this way, and soon
they would move in one direction instead of everywhere. Nina was pleased. The requested troops soon joined them, and the scout moved on.

  Nina turned again and ran. Her force fell in behind. Nina pumped her legs hard, vaulting over stone outcrops, the edges of crater pits and deep, narrow ravines. The new Comm Sergeant relayed the landscape information back to her counterpart at the lava dome that was their new central command post. The group started out running due south about a quarter kilometer, then veered west, their cardinal direction defined by the hazy red glow of a muted sun that was just beyond its peak in the planet's foreboding sky.

  A few kilometers into the patrol's arc, they detected more soldiers. From the thought traffic, Nina found another group of warriors forming a semicircle a few kilometers ahead. It appeared they made contact with at least one Silicoid spore. This group was not aware of the burgeoning central body back at the lava dome. The group of nearly a thousand soldiers believed they were alone and were prepared to fight that way.

  Ever alert, the Comm Sergeant relayed this new development back to base and immediately focused a broadcast to the new group. Nina broke her troop from the patrol circle and headed to the new formation. She spotted yet another smaller force of heavy infantry not too far ahead and moved in the same direction. They ran along slowly. Nina was thrilled to see them burdened by the weight of sonic cannon. Maybe their luck was changing. The large heavies held a solid, regular column of three by twenty. They represented a significant concentration of force. Excellent, Nina thought, they could also save time.

  "Sergeant! Contact the lead of that heavy infantry troop up ahead and connect her to me, exclusive channel."

  She felt the channel open and wasted no time.

  "Scout approaching from the rear. We need to get forward quickly. Can you give us a launch?"

  The infantry sergeant almost tripped.

  "What," Nina thought to the sergeant, "Never gone vaulting?"

  By her silence, the answer was "no." Nina chuckled audibly in her breather-mask. The procedure wasn't authorized. The practice was passed down among the veterans of Range Division and some of the more open-minded Heavy Infantry. It saved a bit of time and more importantly, it was a non-lethal thrill. It was entirely worth the effort in any event.